A lighthouse on what is now named Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor began to operate on this day in 1716. The lighthouse was called the Boston Light.
An earlier FreightWaves Classics article outlined the history of lighthouses in the United States. As noted in that article, ships today have navigational and communications aids that were almost unthinkable even 50 years ago, much less in the 1700s. Back then (and ever since) lighthouses signaled mariners as they approached...